Quote:
Originally Posted by Jrblack83
Both would be great
|
Is that 4 adults or 2 adults & 2
kids?
Is the goal to get the boat to Boston, or to have an adventure?
OK so ways to do it
cheap: C2B hit the high points
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cruiser2B
1. Anchoring out, no marinas unless needed
2. Sail, dont motor...no timetable
3. Eat on the boat, and eat less meat(meat is expensive)
4. Learn how to repair everything on the boat yourself
5. no alcohol when in port(i know I know) |
To expound on C2B's list I would say:
1) Carry multiple anchors of several types. I would have a main
anchor 2 sizes up from what is recommended on 100-150' of chain plus 200-400'
rope. Carry a Danforth or
Fortress for soft sand and mud, carry a Luke/fisherman/Hershoff for rock and weeds, carry an undersized
anchor for the stern and for kedging and backup anchor sized as recommended for your boat or 1 up and of a different type than the main (sometimes one style works with a certain bottom and another won't). Put a chain stopper on the bow and at least 2 oversized
cleats too (windlasses aren't meant to take anchoring loads, only retrieval loads). Get a
windlass, probably the best would be a used Seatiger 555 which is a 2speed manual. A new
manual windlass would be fine too. The key idea here is two-fold, if anchoring is convenient and you have the
equipment to do it right so your are more confident in the results, you are more likely to do it. Secondly, being able to anchor properly may save your boat and your life, best
insurance there is.
2) Your boat is a bit light on sail area. This will affect you most when sailing in light winds. If you had cash to burn there are a number of things like raising the
mast that could change the underlying design to increase sail area. The one modification that you could make to the design would be to add a removable forestay for a staysail. This won't help you hard on the
wind where the headsail and staysail will interfere with each other but on most reaches there should be some improvement. In addition to added area the
rigging will provide better and redundant support for the
mast. The cheapest thing you can do for light air performance is to get a nylon sail, specifically a drifter. A drifter is a large
genoa made from nylon and cut rather full. It won't point as well as a flatter cut Dacron sail, but in really light air you want to foot off a bit anyway. There are a number of used sail outlets where you can pickup drifters, staysails, or whatever in decent shape at a reasonable
price. If you had
money you could get a CodeZero or an asymmetrical which would provide some improvement over a drifter, but not enough to justify the
money when the budget is tight. If your boat already had a symmetrical
spinnaker and your crew is 4 adults it may be you will make use of it regularly, but you will still want the drifter for reaching or on the
wind. With 2 adults on board, a
spinnaker is likely to be more
work than you want to expend, and you almost certainly take it down at night so make sure that you have pole you can wing
sails out on.
3) Get a pressure cooker and learn to use the short cuts it provides. Don't cook more than you will eat at a sitting, no left-overs. Left-overs are an argument for a fridge and that is a real budget killer;
marine fridges are expensive themselves and require upgrades to the
electrical system at least equal to the cost of the fridge. If someone is still peckish at the end of meal give them fruit, veggies or bread.
4) Minimizing the extras minimizes what you pay upfront and what you have to learn to fix and what you have to pay to maintain. Keep the boat as simple as possible. You don't need wind
instruments or
GPS repeaters or networked
electronics or chart plotters. You need a depthsounder and a
GPS. A knotmeter/log and a
VHF would both be very nice, but they are not strictly necessary. Consider building your own nesting
dinghy instead of
buying an inflatible. Likely a bit cheaper, definitely more durable and less prone to theft.
Misc:
I would convert the
head sink to
storage shelves floor to ceiling.
Add
water tankage within the boat.
If you anticipate
long term cruising, add
batteries and
solar panels now, minimizes running of the
engine with
fuel costs and wear and tear. If this is just a trip to Boston, the
fuel costs to keep the
batteries topped up will be less.
Costs along the way:
I have a friend that went thru the
canal 3 yr ago and he says it was $3k. I would expect it to take in the vicinity of 2-3wk to make the transit what with paperwork, boat measuring, getting line handlers, helping someone else transit quid pro quo for line handling. You will need to feed yourselves during this period. The fee schedule for the canal I found says something like $500, but I think there are a lot of extras that you have to pay for like measuring and the pilot fee.
Count on sailing 100mi per day getting to and from the canal. Count on taking at least a week at any stops you make, since clearing in and out usually takes so much time and can be such a hassle, most people are unwilling to stop for only one or two days.
If you choose to go up the
ICW, I would expect you will motor a lot more. Consider staying outside and sailing up the coast. East-coasters should weigh in on this.
Are you in
San Diego now?
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